Alex Massie Alex Massie

Big Brother is Listening to You

The sad thing is that you can no longer consider this sort of thing surprising:

Security cameras have long been a fact of Scottish life, viewed with relief by many communities and with suspicion by civil libertarians.

But what if they were listening to you as well? It has already happened in Glasgow.

A Dutch company called Sound Intelligence carried out a two week long trial in a busy city centre street.

They stress that their system, called Sigard, does not record conversations. It listens not to what is being said but how it is being said.

At the company’s headquarters in the Dutch city of Amersfoort, Bram Kuipers explained that Sigard was listening for the changes that affect the human voice in an aggressive situation…

Sound Intelligence say Sigard is able to discriminate between the sound of aggression and other, everyday loud noises like passing trucks and car horns.

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